Wednesday, July 3, 2013

CHI adoptive mom Bonita Lim lives in Shanghai with her husband and two adopted special needs sons. Bonita is the founder of Brown Rice Designs, a fashion design company Bonita explains that "Some families in Shanghai do not have incomes enough for basic needs like housing, food, education, medical expenses and heating. Brown Rice's main purpose is to provide opportunity, independence and hope to those families that need it most.Brown Rice provides employment, microfinancing, equipment, training and support to people whose personal circumstances make it near impossible to otherwise work. Our Livelihood Program aims to enable individuals to become self sufficient businesses within two years.

Zhang Yali

"When Bonita learned of Zhang Yali, a 13 year old girl whose destitute parents brought her to Beijing from their hometown in rural Hebei Province, she took action via Brown Rice. Yali suffers from leukemia, and the family didn’t have the money for medical care. Her case is not unusual in China, where funds for care of children suffering from birth defects and disease fall far short of the need. What is unusual is the story of how a good Samaritan who is a Shanghai businesswoman gave Zhang a new lease on life. Yali has finished the third of the eleven chemotherapy treatments required to enable her survival without a bone marrow transplant. “All talk, no action,” Bonita said, describing the numbers of people who say they want to help such charity works but never do anything. “I am always told that one person single-handedly can’t ameliorate the need. But if everyone took that view, the world would never get better.”